Portrait of a Gentleman, Sir Henry Hobart Blue Cloak & Cravat C.1683-1684; Attributed to Willem Wissing (1656-1687), Oil on Canvas

This impressive portrait depicts the English nobleman and politician, Sir Henry Hobart (pronounced “Hubbard”), 4th Baronet of Blickling Hall, one of England's greatest Jacobean houses and the supposed birthplace of Henry VII’s second queen, Anne Boleyn. It was painted by William Wissing, whose polished and elegant portraits ensured his meteoric rise from studio assistant in 1680 to royal painter in all but name to King Charles II and his wife Queen Catherine of Braganza in 1683; he had only but one real rival in England, Godfrey Kneller.

The young Sir Henry has been depicted wearing a very long full bottomed wig, a highly polished glistening breastplate under a blue cloak tied at the shoulder with a medallion, brown lappets, white shirt sleeves, and a cross over lace cravat. These immensely expensive items convey wealth and the sitter’s rank in society, for he was a paragon of the wealthy and privileged society that he belonged to.

Henry Hobart was born in 1657; he was the eldest son to Sir John Hobart, 3rd Baronet and Mary Hampden. He graduated in 1675, some four years after he was knighted at Blickling by King Charles II in 1671. When he succeeded his father as the 4th Baronet in 1683, the family was desperately in debt and Blickling mortgaged to John Pollexfen, a merchant who was evidently used to dealing with the problems of impoverished baronets, who suggested that Sir Henry should find a lady who has between six and seven thousand a year and offered to “recommend such a one”. In the following year, on 9 July 1684, Hobart married Elizabeth Maynard (c.1663-1701), co-heir to Sir Joseph Maynard. A dowry of £10,000 released Blickling from its mortgage. The couple had at least four children, including Henrietta who became the mistress of the Prince of Wales.

The most likely date in which our portrait was painted is 1683 when Hobart succeeded his father as baronet, or in 1684 the year of his marriage.

In 1689 he was appointed an equerry to King William III and also Gentleman of the Horse fought under the King in the Battle of the Boyne. In 1698, incensed by rumours that Hobart’s decisive defeat in the elections that year had been brought about by allegations of discreditable conduct at the Battle of the Boyne, Hobart accused Oliver Le Neve of circulating the stories. Although Le Neve denied the accusation, they met in a duel on Cawston Heath - Hobart was mortally wounded. The duel, one of the last to have been fought with swords in England, is commemorated on the spot by a plinth with an urn. His only son, succeeded him and was eventually created 1st Earl of Buckinghamshire (1673-1756).

The family’s seat is at Blickling Hall, Norfolk, England, where King Charles II and Queen Catherine of Braganza were probably guests here in 1671. The house contains a fascinating collection including of furniture, pictures, books, and tapestries of which particularly noteworthy is the huge "Battle of Poltava" tapestry of 1764, probably given to the 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire by Catherine the Great when he was the British Ambassador to her Court.

A portrait of the sitter, also by Wissing, is in the Great Hall at Blickling (see photo), and in 1927 another was recorded at Heydon Hall in Norfolk. The treatment of the facial features, the armour, and the gross point lace, which has been painstakingly delineated, is very fine. Held in a good quality antique frame.

William (Willem) Wissing was trained at The Hague and came to London in 1676 and most probably joined the studio or Sir Peter Lely. After Lely’s death in 1680 he effectively took over his business and he scaled the heights of patronage with extraordinary ease, and painted for very important aristocratic patrons.

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